Born in Saratov in 1935 (education - 5 years). Mother - Sophia Andreevna Wagner, born in 1907; father Christian Wagner, born in 1905.
They did not celebrate festive days, confession: Lutherans
Early in the 1930s they suffered from famine (they went to collect grass and herbs in the neighborhood and ate them). Apart from them three more families got to the same village (two of them also bore the surname Wagner).
The resettlement of the Wagner family was enforced transporting them in freight cars (each with several other families (mostly 4-5) in one waggon; there were plank beds). When they stopped at the stations they were allowed to get out of the reain, but only adult men made use of this possibility; otherwise, the deportees used buckets in order to empty their bowles.
Nobody was happy about the announcement of the planned resettlement, nobody
felt for leaving his home. When the people finally arrived in their new place of
residence, they were
placed in houses of local residents.
The houses there were all made of wood, without having used a single nail, and were covered by roofing shingles. Right in the center of the village there was a water supply well with a hige wooden wheel and a chain with big bolts fixed to it. And a few steps from the village there was a river, which rather looked like a marsh than a river. They sewed their garments from linen and hemp and manufactured all kinds of appliances and useful objects by means of home-made work benches operated by women.
They were only rehabilitated in 1955 or 1956. They were not drafted to the army during 1953-1954, as they were considered as enemies of the people.
He himself never returne to his native place of residence, but his wife and daughter did (1985-1986; they were not allowed to just leave without any specific reason, but only “on call”.
They kept a boar, a cow, poultry and three sheep. In 1942 they were returned the cattle confiscated from them when they had to leave the Volga Region (just a single cow!), put there was no space, no stable or shed to keep it; hence, they decided to yield the cow to the kolkhoz farm; in return they received 70 kgs (1,5 bags) of flour. They slaughtered the fowls, prepared and ate them . For their labour they were credited with so-called daily work units; they had to grind grains, and their salary was paid to them in cereals, too.
The commandant’s office was not situated within the settlement; once a month they had to go there to get registered. It was strictly forbidden to leave for another district. The commandant would penalize anybody who did; it would happen that they were punished by imprisonment of 3-15 days for having left the adjacencies.
The surrounding human polpulation consisted of – Tatars. They behaved very unfriendly and even nasty towards the family („like cankered dogs“). There mother went for work to Pirovskoe, where she had to saw wood. She received 500 gs of bread – this was her salary. She economized this piece of bread and took it home in the evening to feed her children.
He went o scholl as from the 12th year of his life; however, he was not able to understand a single word of Russian (thus, he could not give any answers, when the teacher asked him questions; everything had to be translated by his classmates first). They had no appropriate clothes to wear, when they went to school; but they at least received one pair of felt boots – to be used by two children. While one of the brothers left for some place outside, the other one had to stay at home.
Having graduated from school he immediately went to work (at the age of 17).
Workers of the shipyard received only small wages – about 1000 to 1100 rubles (AB: in accordance with the old currency, nowadays this would be 100 rubles). They received their wages without delay, but labour was very hard (they built barges– 2,5 m high, 15 m wide and 80 m long). The supervisors behaved well towrds the labourers. They used to work 8 hours per shift. All workers were accomodated in a near-by hostel.
His wife Vera Kirsch became a victim of repressions in the Ukraine.
Interviewed by Julia Kalenchuk and Darya Bondarenko.
(AB – Remarks given by Aleksei Babiy, Krasnoyarsk „Memorial“ Organization)
Eights expedition of historical illumination and human rights, Yeniseysk,
Podtyosovo 2011